
DANIEL H. MARTIN 



4^ ^ (^ ^^ 



Class 







COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



/ 



Concemmg %fitm 
Wi}ittf are ^0leep 



H^mitl i^offman jEattfn 

Clinton 2CtJe. IfleformetJ €|)urct, Betoarft, 4^et» Ser?ep 



CI)ttag:o 
1904 



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D^ 



OCT 5 1904 
^ Qosyrleht Entry 

^LASS a. XXo. Na 

COPY B 



COPYRIGHT BY 
A. D. F. RANDOLPH & CO. 



REVISED EDITION 

'DO'i'YRIGHT, 1904, BY 

THE ^'^INONA PUBLISHING COMPANY 



ir WOUI& not bave ^ou to be Ignorant, 
astetbren, concerning tbem wblcb are agleep* 

— /. Thes, 4:i3. 



Contentjai 






V 






CHAPTER I 






Does Death End All ? . 


• 


PAGE 

9 


CHAPTER II 






Is Dying to be Dreaded? . 


. 


26 


CHAPTER III 






With What Manner of Body do They 


Come ? 


34 


CHAPTER IV 






Our Children Gone Home . 


. 


38 


CHAPTER V 






Shall We Recognize Friends in the Future Life ? 


48 


CHAPTER VI 






Sorrow, Its Meaning and Ministry , 


• f 


60 


CHAPTER VII 






Comforting Lines .... 


• • • 


78 



Co ti^e jEemort of 



Concerning Ci^em Wt^iti^ ^u ^gleep 

CHAPTEE I 

2r>oeg SDeatti enrs Ml 

The question which Job asked in his despair, 
linds an echo in many a human heart: ''If a man 
die, will he live again?" Who has stood by the 
open grave where the form of a loved one was 
lowered into the gloomy depths and not asked 
the same question? But death is not an enemy. 

Death is the decree of our loving Father, who 

®xit 

takes this method of giving us an exchange of 

IlCEtt) 

worlds. Therefore death does not startle nature . 

eoerp 

or God. When your dear one died, not a bird g^^oivu 
ceased its singing; not a zephyr hushed its whis- 
per; not a star dimmed its radiance. It was as 
if God through nature were saying, ''Let not 
your heart be troubled; nothing strange has hap- 
pened." Every tick of the clock is the knell of 
a departing soul. Thirty-six hundred every 
hour, 86,000 every day go to the house appointed 
for all living. At God's angle of vision the body 
to which we cling with so much tenderness is 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

only the outer garment, something that can be 
taken off and laid aside, as you put off your 
clothes at night. 

Job's question, the question of every grief- 
stricken heart, is met by the words of Jesus: 
^'Because I live, ye shall live also." Every death 
chamber is an ante-room of the infinite temple, 
every death hour a triumph hour of entrance 
through an arch of shadows to the eternal day. 
The grave is but the hyphen between two worlds. 
Death is the decree of a loving God. 

I'here had to be some method of exchanging 
cbanire of w^^^^^- ^^ there had been a better way the 
tDorlUiS Father would have found it. Had death never 
entered the world, later generations would have 
found the earth over-populated, and life a ter- 
rible struggle. Think, too, of the dismal burden 
of years of decrepitude. Therefore the Bible never 
speaks of death as a calamity. It calls it victory 
(1 Cor. 15:54). ''If in this life only we have 
hope, we are of all men most miserable" (1 Cor. 
15: 19). "But now is Christ risen from the dead, 
and become the first-fruits of them that slept." 

10 



SDeatI) 



Does Death End All? 

Jesus Christ tunneled the grave. Through it 
He walked into victory and immortality. What gj^jj^ 
He did He gave us the power to do ; for He was ffta^e 
declared to be the Son of God with power. He a tunnel 
ascended on high, leading captivity captive, and 
giving gifts to men. 

I, While I write these words, nature is preach- 
ing the gospel of resurrection. The winter 
seemed like death. But now the snow and frost 
are gone, maple buds have burst their silken 
cradles, tulips and daffodils are hanging their 
flaming banners along the garden wall. If 
nature can make the old earth cast off the grave- grt ^ jr 
clothes of winter, why should it be thought a e^itJent 
thing incredible that God should raise the dead? prnoffii of 
Crude reasoning that, which affirms that the immot-- 
Architect who created the palace of the soul has ^^^^^? 
no power to recreate it. When God finished the 
creation He made the body of man a sort of table 
of contents of the earth; for in a man all the 
elements of the earth are mingled. Your body is 
literally a microcosm. A skillful artisan, if he had 
all the ingredients, could make a body just as 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

good. But would that be a man? No; for the 

man within the man would be lacking. This is 

where the work of God comes in. He puts in 

something not found in earth, or air, or sea. It 

^ is not carbon, or nitrogen, or lime, or phosphate, 

^- or iron. Personality is not made of matter, but 

tl)e man -^ 

hopes, fears, affections, ambitions, things that 

soar beyond all barriers of time and sense. Per- 
sonality is a composite of dust and God. The 
dust part, after serving its purpose, returns to 
its kindred dust, while the God part enters upon 
the realm of spirit with illimitable outlook. 

"Call him not dead but perfected," said the 
ancients of a departed hero. Paul said, ''To die 
is gain." There would be no gain to a kernel of 
wheat to remain encased in a costly jewel box. 
When it is buried in the ground, there spring 
from it flower and fruit. So the human soul 
never reaches its development until divested of 
its dusty trappings. 

**Alas for him who never sees 
The stars shine through his cypress trees; 
Who hopeless lays his dead away, 
Nor looks to see the breaking day 

12 



Does Death End All? 

Across the mournful marbles play. 
Who hath not learned in hours of faith, 

The truth to flesh and sense unknown, 
That life is ever lord of death, 

And love can never lose its own !" 

II. Human nature also confirms the hope of 
immortality. First, in this life's incompleteness. 
We scarcely learn to be of use in this world 
before we are called to leave it. When we have 
gained some meed of experience we find our faces 
veiled in age, and our feet treading toward the 
grave. All our difficulties point to a greater 
completeness by and by. We are begun, but not , 

finished. Every man discovers that he is arattment 
equipped for more things than this life calls for ; 
he has powers which this world never drafts into 
service. He can get neither time nor space 
enough to employ the multiform powers of his 
mind and spirit. These are the forepointings of 
immortality. These are the pledges God has 
made of the fuller life beyond, as the pieces of 
wood and the branch of thorn-berries told Colum- 
bus and his disheartened sailors of the new world 
near at hand. 

13 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

Infinite personality, called God, is fore- 
shadowed in finite personality called man. As 
we have borne the image of the earthly, so shall 
we also bear the image of the heavenly. 

**A solemn murmur of the soul, tells of the world to 

be, 
As travelers hear the billows roll, before they reach 

the sea." 

III. Human nature supplies another argument 
for immortality in our discontent. We are the 
most unsatisfied beings on the face of the earth. 
Our heart tells us that we were made to be satis- 
fied, yet nothing in this life quite satisfies us; 
f^^l our ideal runs ahead of our real. But every 

other creature finds the limits of its growth here 
below. Note the stolid contentment of the ox, 
which finds its capacity satisfied in meadow and 
stream ; observe the purring complacency of the 
cat, whose heaven is a hearthstone. Contrast 
the feverish ambitions of men, and their unsatis- 
fied yearnings, even after long-sought goals are 
reached. The animal is at home here, but man 
is not. It is ever true. Foxes have holes, and 

14 



eartblp 



Does Death End All? 

the birds of the air have nests, but the son of 
man hath not where to lay his head. 

If this life completes the sphere of man's 
activities, then my dog has a more successful 
career than I, for his capacity is met in his 
environment; a stone in the field is greater than 
I, for it lasts longer ; it runs no risks of accident 
or of a broken heart. 

IV. Another strong premise of immortality is 
the character of God. Given a Supreme Being 
among whose attributes are justice and goodness, 
then immortality is a necessity. Think of the 
vast numbers of children who pass away before 
they have performed any service for the world. 
*'What a tragic waste of faculty!" exclaims Dr. (Bti\l*si 
Gregg, who also puts this pertinent question: ^P^^^^"^^ 
*'How about the dear children born with bodily ^ 
defects, to go through life as cripples and suffer- 
ers ?" Is God good? Yes. Is that child God's 
complete work? No. God's work is not fin- 
ished yet. There is another life where God's 
plans will be revealed and the compensations' 
made. "Then the eyes of the blind shall be 

15 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be un- 
stopped; then shall the lame leap as the hart, 
and the tongue of the dumb sing." "God shall 
wipe all tears from their eyes, and there shall be 
no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither 
shall there be any more pain, for the former 
things are passed away." 

V. Another thing ; the instinct of immortality 
is universal. Every one takes the future life for 
granted. It is held where the Bible has never 
gone. The tombs of Egypt, built 5,000 years 
ago, reveal pictures representing the future state 
SSnttetfial ^^ ^^^ bovlI. The laws of the Hindoos, written a 
tefitimonp thousand years before Christ, set forth descrip- 
tions of the soul in the hereafter. The Eomans 
and the Greeks had their heaven and hell ; the 
Mexicans and Peruvians have their paradise; the 
American Indians their happy hunting grounds. 
Immortality is not a question of argument, it is 
a matter of instinct. Who implanted this uni- 
versal instinct, these common longings? God, 
the author of life, did it. But would He be so 
cruel as to implant a hope He intended to disap- 

16 



Does Death End All? 

point? Nay; the soul is apart of God Himself, 
imperishable. The soul is distinct from the 
body; for the instinct of immortality exists even 2ri)e 
after the bodily powers are exhausted. Moreover ^otil 
the soul is a unit, while the body is composed of ^ 
separate parts. Matter is divisible, the soul is 
indivisible. Since, therefore, the body is dis- 
tinct from the soul, death, which is a physical 
event, touches the body only, and has no power 
to interrupt thought, or break down the infinite 
capacities of the soul which God created, not for 
these few brief years of earthly life with its sor- 
rows, weaknesses, wrongs and injustice, but for 
eternity. The ceasing of heart-beats does not 
mean the quenching of the spirit. 

When John Quincy Adams was eighty years 
old, he met in the streets of Boston an old 
friend, who shook his trembling hand and said; 

*'Good morning! And how is John Quincy 
Adams to-day?" 

''Thank you," was the ex-President's answer, 
"John Quincy Adams is well, sir; quite well, I 
thank you. But the house in which he lives at 

17 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

present is becoming dilapidated. It is tottering 
upon its foundation. Time and the seasons have 
nearly destroyed it. Its roof is pretty well worn 
out. Its walls are much shattered, and it trem- 
' bles with every wind. The old tenement is be- 

coming almost uninhabitable, and I think John 
Quincy Adams will have to move out of it soon ; 
but he himself is quite well, sir; quite well." 

With that, the venerable sixth President of the 
United States moved on with the aid of his staff. 
It was not long afterward that he had his second 
and fatal stroke of paralysis in the capitol at 
Washington. 

''This is the last of earth," he said. "lam 
content." 

Because we are not able to see or touch the 
spirit world we dare not argue against it. Sci- 
ence has proven that the whole interstellar space 
^Deatb ^^ filled with matter which we cannot see. There 
not are certain gases so fine that we may pass our 
annibi' hands through them without knowing it. The 
lation uiighty ocean of ether has none of the known 
properties of matter, because the planets plunge 

18 



Does Death End All? 

through it unobstructed. Yet it reaches out an 
Herculean arm to hold those planets in their 
orbits against a force which would snap a steel 
rope a hundred miles in diameter. This suggests 
what mighty resources God has ordained between 
the visible and the invisible worlds. And just as 
we know the existence of the mysterious an:d in- 
visible ether by its workings, so we know the 
existence of the mysterious, invisible spirit body. 
Paul shows us that death is simply the ex- 
change of the material body for the spiritual. 
Such a word as annihilation is not known to the 
dictionary of nature. Chemistry shows us how 
certain bodies may undergo complete change 
without annihilation. You can see it, but cannot 
understand it. For example, you may [take a 
piece of silver, immerse it in diluted niter, and 
everything that distinguishes it as a metal, to- 
gether with its specific gravity, will be apparently 
destroyed. The liquid, however, remains as 
limpid as before, not changing its appearance a 
particle. Yet it has absorbed a solid piece of sil- 
ver, to all appearances annihilated it. But wait. 

19 



ConcerningThem Which Are Asleep 

Drop a piece of copper into the solution. Presto! 
the silver will reappear in small, brilliant, 
metallic crystals, and settle in the bottom of the 
glass. Where had it been in the meantime? No 
one knows. The fact only is there. The mys- 
tery is not explained. ''Behold, I show you a 
mystery," said Paul. ''We shall not all sleep; 
we shall all be changed." He states the fact; 
he does not explain the mystery. Sufficient for 
us that science has laid down for the feet of 
Christian faith these solid blocks of truth to walk 
over. 

VI. But another significant evidence of im- 
mortality is found in human character. There 
is that quality in high and beautiful natures that 
carries with it the evidence of its own continu- 
ance. When your true-hearted friend dies, you 
^ntmtitit ^^^ ^^ argument for immortality, you feel it. It 
etjitience ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ made the unbelieving Hume declare 
that whenever he thought of his mother, he 
believed in immortality. When you stand by the 
river Rhone in Geneva, the very velocity of its 
rush tells you that it has come from tremendous 

20 



Does Death End All? 

altitudes. The river Amazon, by its breadth and 
volume, testifies to the vastness of the waters 
into which it pours. So there are natures so 
pure and high that they bring with them the 
conviction that they were born from above, 
while the force of their motives and loyalty to 
high spiritual ideals, predicts the nobler future to 
which they move, as the seed predicts the flower, 
and the blossom the fruit. 

"I cannot think of them as dead, 

Who walk with me no more 
Along the path of life I tread ; 

They have but gone before. 
The Father's house is mansioned fair, 

Beyond my vision dim ; 
All souls are His, and here or there 

Are living unto Him. 
Our knowlege of that life is small. 

The eye of faith is dim, 
But I'm content, since Christ knows all, 

And we will be with Him!" 

VII. Sometimes it is affirmed that immortality ©lU 

is not taught in the Old Testament, and there- ©eeita* 

fore the patriarchs did not believe it. The argu- ^^^^ 
ment is faulty as to fact and conclusion. Even 

21 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

if the Old Testament were silent on the fact, that 
would not prove lack of belief on the part of the 
patriarchs. A negative never proves a positive. 
The absence of dogmatic statement concerning 
immortality is due to the fact that these ancient 
writings dealt more with national afEairs tlian 
with individual beliefs. 

But the belief in a future life is plainly implied. 
In Genesis we read: *'And Enoch walked with 
God; and he was not, for God took him." In 
the Book of Kings we are told that *' Elijah was 
taken up by a whirlwind into heaven." David 
says, "Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, 
and afterward receive me into glory." Daniel 
says, ''Many of them that sleep in the dust shall 
awake, some to everlasting life, and some to ever- 
lasting shame and contemi)t. " Jeremiah speaks 
of God as the "Heavenly King." Isaiah says, 
"Neither hath eye seen nor ear heard what God 
hath prepared for them that love him." The 
same prophet says, "He will swallow up death in 
victory, and the Lord God will wipe away all tears 
from their eyes." David says, "In thy presence 

22 



Does Death End All? 

is fullness of joy, at thy right hand there are 
pleasures f orevermore. " 

VIII. As to the New Testament, it is per- 
fumed through and through with the blessed 
truths of immortality. Briefly summed up, they 
are: 1. The incarnation; God manifest in the 
flesh. 2. The positive statement of the Christ 
that He came from the Father and from an 
eternity with the Father. 3. The mission of 
Christ to save lost sinners. 4. The teachings of ^^^ 
Christ, which are intelligible only in the light of 
a life beyond the grave. He tells us that in this ^i,;^,^*.-^ 
life there will be sorrow and cross-bearing, but in 
the life to come a recompense for it. To Martha 
He said, ''He that believeth on me, even though 
he were dead, yet shall he live, and he that 
liveth and believeth in me shall never die." At 
the last supper He said, "In my Father's house 
are many mansions; I go to prepare a place for 
you." Many other verses in the gospels and 
epistles set forth the same truth. 

In those memorable scenes where Jesus showed 
His power over death by calling life back to the 

23 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

body, and in His own resurrection, He forever 
changed the thought of immortality from a 
rumor or a dream to an established fact. Across 
the tomb of every believer flash the golden words, 
"Because I live, ye live also." 

"God having of old spoken unto the fathers by 
the prophets in divers portions and in divers 
manners, hath at the end of these days spoken 
unto us by his Son." 

"Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in 
God, believe also in me. In my Father's house 
are many mansions ; if it were not so, I would have 
btctor ^^1^ y^^- ^ S^ ^^ prepare a place for you. And 
if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come 
again, and receive you unto myself, that where I 
am there ye may be also." 

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for 
the first heaven and the first earth were passed 
away; and the sea was no more. And I saw the 
holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of 
heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned 
for her husband. And I heard a great voice out 
of the throne saying. Behold, the tabernacle of 

24 



CI)mt 



Does Death End All? 

God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, 
and be their God; and he shall wipe away every 
tear from their eyes ; and death shall be no more ; 
neither shall there be any mourning, nor crying, 
nor pain any more : the first things are passed 
away. And he that sitteth on the throne said: 
Behold, I make all things new. ' ' 



25 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 



CHAPTER II 

310 SD^ing to be SDrealieD? 

Before Christ triumphed over the grave there 

had been misty conceptions of the experience of 

death. Men looked forward to it with dread. 

It was talked of as men talked once about that 

cape which they supposed a fatal barrier to the 

circumnavigation of the globe. Tradition told of 

the many vessels carried by winds and currents 

^. into those gloomy waters, never to be seen again. 

ijonliaffe ^^^ ^^^ ^ ^^^^ captain determined to learn for 

of tl)e himself and to sail, if possible, past this hobgob- 

fear lin spot. He sailed around the cape in safety, 

and opened a route to the East Indies and 

acquired for his country the riches of the world. 

He changed the name of that much dreaded cape 

from the Cape of Storms to the Cape of Good 

Hope. 

For every believing heart Jesus has changed 
the fear of the grave to joy and peace. 

It has been the practice of literature through- 

26 



Is Dying to be Dreaded? 

out all time to call death hard names ; as though 
death were God's punishment to a sinful race. 
But the first death in this world did not come to 
Adam, the first sinful man, nor to Cain, the first 
murderer, but to Abel, the innocent and right- 
eous. The sinful brother was punished by living, 
the good brother was translated to the higher and 
better life. Death reigned in this world long 
before man entered it, as fossil remains scattered 
throughout the earth attest. Death is a part of 
the cycle of change which God has established 
for everything He has created. The instinct of ^. 
the animal world is not to dread death. Animals Jqi^^j^ 
prepare for it as naturally as they prepare for the laociell 
changes of the seasons. You never stumble 
across a dead animal in field or forest. They 
have crawled off into some hollow tree or cave, 
or deep recess, there quietly to breathe out their 
life. Thus nature confirms the Bible in the truth 
that life is swung into the universe and swung 
out again, to be gathered up into materials for 
life under the moulding touch of the Spirit of 
God. 

27 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

**Our little systems have their day, 

They have their day, and cease to be ; 
They are but broken lights of Thee, 
And Thou, O Lord, art more than they. ' * 

God is not a God of the dead, bub of the living 
(Luke 20: 38). God sees only life in all His uni- 
verse. In God's eye there is no interruption to 
the stream of life which He has poured forth 
from the ocean of spirit. 

Let us stand at God's angle of vision, and we 
shall see the universe as one glowing, vivid, 
boundless field of life; every death hour a 
triumph hour, the earth exhaling spirits into the 
upper heights of life, as the soil and sea send up 
their moisture, not to be lost, but to exist in new 
manifestations. 

There are earnest Christians who suffer at the 

thought of the final dissolution, and the separa- 

|7jQ tion from those they love. Fortunately we have 

UreaU learned from science, and from abundant testi- 

afaottt mony and experience, that the dread of death as 

UeatI) a physical experience is a delusion. Those who 

are ill suffer very little from such a dread. 

Those who are in health are apt to fear it most. 

38 



Is Dying to be Dreaded? 

When the time comes Mother Nature tenderly 
smooths the way, so that it seems as natural as 
to fall asleep. You do not dread going to sleep 
when you are fatigued. You look upon it as a 
boon. But sleep is the twin brother of death, 
the absence of consciousness. We love sleep, and 
the only dread after going to bed is that we may 
not be able to sleep. More people suffer from 
the attempt to get to sleep than sick people do 
from the thought of dying, or in dying itself. 
Physicians will tell you, and clergymen, who are 
often at death-beds, this same thing. The will 
of the patient yields to the mandates of the death 
angel. It is remarkable also to see how easily 
and gently the affections unclasp their earthly 
hold. Those who have been at many death-beds 
can testify to the wonderful sweetness and resig- 
nation of the departing one, when all the others 
at the bedside are in tears and agony. To the 
believer, the apostle's words are made true in 
Heb. 2:15 — '' Delivering them who through fear 
of death were all their lifetime subject to 
bondage." 

29 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

Our hymnology needs to be revised where it 
refers to the dread of the transition. There are 
no "Jordan's stormy banks"; there is no 
"death's dark, sullen stream." And by the 
testimony of physicians, there is no place in a 
dying experience for "the last mortal agony." 
The vast majority of the race breathe out their 
life as gently as you would fall asleep, uncon- 
scious of suffering. The angel of death hovers 
over the couch like a sympathetic* friend, and in 
almost every instance David's words are sweetly 
realized: "He giveth his beloved sleep." 

Let there be no worry about dying grace. 
That will be supplied when the time comes. 
What you need now is living grace. And after 
3lbottt all, life is more to be dreaded than death, for life 
f^V^M ig constantly shadowed by temptations, which 
may mar our souls and harm our influence. We 
need not prepare to die, but rather prepare to 
live. For if we live right, we shall die right. 
Dying is an easy matter. Living is solemn. For 
the kind of life we live affects not only us but all 
whom our lives touch. 



Is Dying to be Dreaded? 

What an inspiring joy the Christian view of 
death affords! A friend tells how he was walk- 
ing one summer afternoon in a forest, and found 
a bird's nest on the ground with four beautiful 
eggs in it. Stooping to examine them, he found 
every egg empty. Had some one robbed the 
nest? No. The mysterious life within those 
eggs had matured. The birdlings were enjoying 
their freedom in a near-by tree. Better off with 
all the cerulean to soar in than residing in the 
confines of the shell. 

Have you not thought the same way when at 
the grave-side you have said good-bye to a dear 
friend? The body lowered into the tomb was 
only the empty shell. The spirit had flown, and 
you rejoiced that there was one chorister more in 
heaven, one scepter more, one star more in the 
firmament. 

Never let us think of the grave as the goal. 
As Dr. Hep worth has said, "the difference 
between being a bit of driftwood with no destina- 
tion, a mere plaything of fate, and a staunch 
vessel which lifts its anchor iji one port and faces 

31 



iop of 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

the storms and waves while sailing to another 
port, is the difference between the soul with eyes 
fixed on nothingness, and the soul that ever 
walks with heaven in view." 

If doubt or distress of mind come to you on 
this subject, remember Jesus' words as John 
^Tefitifi records them, "Behold, I am he who was dead, 
j)0lUg but am alive f orevermore ; and I have the keys 
tj)e of death and the grave." Ask Jesus for the key 
feepfii when you want any problems solved touching 
the future life. 

Jesus has lighted up the gloom of the grave, 
and made its gate to turn on golden hinges. He 
made the cross His pillow, that we might pillow 
our heads on the precious truth of immortality. 



"I know not what the future hath 

Of marvel or surprise, 
Assured alone that life and death 
His mercy underlies. 

'*And if my heart and flesh are weak 

To bear an untried pain, 
The bruised reed He will not break, 
But strengthen and sustain. 

32 



Is Dying to be Dreaded? 



**And so beside the silent sea, 
I wait the muffled oar ; 
No harm from Him can come to me, 
On ocean or on shore. 

"I know not where His islands lift 
Their f ronded palms in air ; 
I only know I cannot drift 
Beyond His love and care." 



33 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

CHAPTER III 

Wit^ WW fanner of 115oD^ sr>o W^t^ Come? 

When we have laid our darling dead in the grave, 
the question comes : Will the clay that housed 
the spirit here be the same body which that spirit 
will have in heaven? St. Paul sets such ques- 
tionings at rest by saying, *'God giveth it a body 
as it pleaseth him." In other words, we are not 
to trouble ourselves about so great a mystery ; we 
^, can trust it to God's wisdom and eroodness. The 

tternel ^P^stle says, *'Thou sowest not the body that 
tjtore shall be." He also says, "Flesh and blood can- 
preciottfif not inherit the kingdom of God." And the 
tbantj)e scriptures do not emphasize the resurrection of 
^^^^*^ the body, but the resurrection of the dead. This 
at first seems disappointing, because the body of 
your loved one was so dear, and was the vehicle 
of identification. True, but it was really the 
spirit which you loved, and the change from the 
natural body to the spiritual can no more change 
the spirit than a change from dark garments to 
light and beautiful ones could change your loved 

34 



With What Manner of Body Do They Come ? 



one's identity when on earth. It is of small con- 
cern whether God shall employ again the material 
atoms that are built up in our present bodies. I 
am sure you care little for the silicates and limes 
which you cast off a score of years ago, or for the 
carbons and oxygens which you burned in the 
furnace of your lungs to keep you warm, any 
more than you care for the ashes of last year's 
hearth fire, or the cast-off clothing you gave to 
the ragman. 

It is perfectly possible, from a scientific point 
of view, that God could, if He chose, rehabilitate 
our spirits with the perishable materials of our 
present bodies. A great scientist, in his work on 
Biology, shows how the microscope has found 
bioplasts which are little workshops, in which -^otljinff 
the process of making bodies is carried on. But 
we soon step into the region of mystery and 
speculation here, and it is better to leave the 
solution to God. All that we need to know has 
been revealed, namely : That our dead shall be 
raised to life; that as they have borne the image 
of the earthy, they shall also bear the image of 

35 



Uiitl; (Sol 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

the heavenly. The apostie illustrates by saying 
that when we sow grain, that which we handle 
and put into the ground dies, but the part we do 
not see, the seed-life of the grain, quickens and 
grows. God gives it a new body, that it may be 
UZht rtntil S^^i^ ^^^^ more. The pattern is still there, and 
tueabefi comes again into sight, and weaves about itself 
it& oton the tissues of its identity. The water-lily lifts its 
ilientitp head in glory above the waves, reflecting its 
golden crown and satin folds of whiteness. But 
if you follow its long stem down through the 
water you find its root buried in the slime and 
mire. The one belongs to the other. What you 
see above the water is the glorified body of what 
you see beneath. So when we place our beloved 
dead in the dark ground we may comfort our- 
selves with God's precious assurance that what 
has been sown in corruption will be raised in 
incorruption ; that our dear ones will be restored 
to us again in forms beautiful, glorious, im- 
mortal. They shall be again embodied, for God 
will give them a body as it pleaseth Him. What 
will please God will be infinitely pleasing to us. 

36 



With What Manner of Body Do They Come? 

And since our rehabilitated souls are to remain 

changeless forever, we may rest assured that they 

Avill be as perfect, as desirable, and as lovely as 

God, with all His wondrous power and skill, can 

make them. It is our great comfort to know 

that our dear ones, when they die, go at once into 

the presence of Christ. 2 Cor. 5:1, tells us that 

death is simply going from one house to another. 

"To depart," says Paul, ''is to be with Christ." (J^xm^U 

2 Cor. 5: 8 says, ''To be absent from the body is Hon 

to be present with the Lord." John says, "I 

heard a voice from heaven saying unto me. Write, 

Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from 

henceforth." (Eev. 14:13.) 

^'I hear it singing, singing sweetly, 
Softly in an undertone, 
Singing as if God had taught it: 
It is better farther on. 

**Sits upon the grave and sings it, 

Sings it when the heart would groan. 
Sings it when the shadows darken: 
It is better farther on. 

^*Night and day it brings the message, 
Sings it when I sit alone, 
Sings it so the heart may hear it : 
It is better farther on." 
37 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 



CHAPTER IV 

<©ur C^iilDrm &ont l^ome 

"There is no flock, however watched and tended, 
But one dead lamb is there ; 
There is no fireside, howsoe'er defended, 
But has one vacant chair." 

Jesus was called into such a home, as St. Mark 
tells us in the 5th chapter. Jesus took the little 
girl by the hand and said unto her, "Talitha 
cumi," which, being interpreted, is, "My little 
darling, get up," the very words in the Syriac 
which that child had heard every morning from 
the lips of her own mother. How tender it was 
of Jesus, who, knowing that mother's familiar 
*eCaUtI)a salutation, used it now to awaken this little one 
from the sleep of death! Jesus did not use any 
awe-inspiring forms of expression, but adopted 
the simplicity of speech of common life. Jesus 
shows us how our common life touches the eternal 
life. Jesus seldom uses the future tense in 
speaking of divine realities. He realized the pres- 
entness of eternal life. In His view the little 

38 



Cttmf 



Our Children Gone Home 

maid was not really dead, only sleeping. Just as 
Lazarus, who had already seen corruption in the 
tomb, to Jesus' mind was only heavy with sleep, 
waiting for the divine voice to awake him. So 
he said to Martha, ''I am (not, I will be) the 
resurrection and the life." 

* 'There is no death, what seems so is transition. 
This life of mortal breath is but the gateway to the 

home Elysian, 
Whose portals we call death." 

It is interesting to note the conspicuous silence 

with which Jesus treats death. The burden of 

His message is always life. ''I am come that ye 

might have life," He said. And in expanding 

that thought He says that life is not confined to 

the relations of soul and body. As Eossiter Eay- 

mond has finely written : "It were a mockery to ^. ,,. 

^ €it life 
suppose that Jesus' miracles of healing were sim- r i:r^ 

ply to bring gladness to a few mourners, and call 
back to a world of pain and sickness a few dead 
people. These miracles of restoration were sim- 
ply witnesses to the life which is more than meat ; 
to the life which is not sustained by bread alone; 

39 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

to the life which throbs with a pulse divine. So 
when He restored the little child in the ruler's 
home, when He brought back Lazarus, it was 
simply to show that the body was only an acci- 
dent of the life, that the soul is something other 
and higher, which can go and come. He was 
trying to say to the weeping sisters of Lazarus, 
when they said that their brother would not have 
died had Jesus been there, that continued life in 
this vale of tears is not the highest boon. But 
when He saw they continued their weeping and 
wailing. He broke o£E His futile attempt at higher 
consolation, and went abruptly to the tomb and 
recalled the immortal spirit to the mortal body, 
thus teaching by an object lesson to those who 
could not otherwise comprehend, the continuity 
of life." 

Jesus said, *^ Suffer little children to come unto 
Cf)el(ibe ^^' ^^^ forbid them not," because He can do 
abote far more and better for them in the spiritual 
all loije realm than any earthly parent could provide. 

I realize, however, the wrench which the death 
of a darling child gives to our human heart. 

40 



Our Children Gone Home 

The hopes that have been centered in that little 
boy or girl are suddenly blasted ; the affections 
that have twined around the life are rudely 
crushed. AH the world seems dark and desolate, 
the sun has gone out of the sky. The parent 
almost feels that God is cruel and heartless. Not 
so. God's name and nature are Love. "Like as 
a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth." 
God is Himself a parent. He understands a 
parent's grief. He is a father; He had a dear 
son whom He gave up. He knows how to sym- 
pathize when we agonize. "He who spared not 
his own son, but delivered him up for us all, 
shall he not with him freely give us all things?'* 
(Rom. 8:32.) 

A dead joy is better than a living sorrow. But 
you say, "We prayed most earnestly that our 
child's life might be spared to us here." What 
you really prayed for was the welfare of your JJraper 
child. In your wisdom you thought his welfare anfitoereti 
was a prolonged earthly life. But in God's wis- ^V ^^i^i^l 
dom He answered your prayer for the welfare of 
the child by giving him the spiritual life. It is 

41 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

not the will of the Father in heaven that one of 
these little ones should perish. God orders all 
things out of His wisdom and out of His love. 
Your little one is not lost, but saved — saved from 
the evil to come; saved from the kind of grief 
that now wrenches your soul; saved from the 
power of sin. 

**Safe in the arms of Jesus, 
Safe from corroding care ; 
Safe from the world's temptations, 
Sin cannot harm him there.'* 

Do not think of what you have lost; think of 
what you have gained. You have gained a beau- 
tiful memory, an enriched experience, a precious 
hope, and a very near sense of the presence of 
God, in whose sustaining arms you rest. Heaven 
will seem nearer to you than before, since those 
little dimpled hands have pushed open the pearly 
gates. Be thou happy in the happiness of your 
child; for God's word says that city is ''full of 
boys and girls playing in the streets thereof. '* 
(Zech. 8:5.) 

A mother who had lost two beautiful children, 

42 



Our Children Gone Home 

and felt that life had no further charms for her, 
was led by God's spirit to realize that her darlings 
were taken into the arms of infinite love, to be Cj)e 
cared for better than any earthly love could pos- JFatI)er'fl; 
sibly do. And instead of feeling hateful and 
envious toward those mothers who still had their 
babes with them, she wrote these lines : 

**Mother, I see you with your nursery light, 
Leading your babies all in white, 

To their sweet rest. 
Christ the good Shepherd carries mine to-night, 

And that is best. 

*'I cannot help tears when I see them twine 
Their fingers in yours, and their bright curls shine 

On your warm breast ; 
But the Savior's is purer than yours or mine ; 

He can love best. 

*'You tremble each hour because your arms 
Are weak ; your heart is wrung with alarms, 

And sore opprest ; 
My darlings are safe, out of reach of harms ; 

And that is best. 

**You know over yours may hang even now, 
Pain and disease, whose fulfilling slow ^ 

None can arrest. 
Mine in God's garden run to and fro 
And that is best. 

43 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

'*You know that of yours, your feeblest one, 
And dearest may live long years alone, 

Unloved, unblest. 
Mine are cherished of saints around God's throne, 

And that is best. 

You must dread for yours the crime that sears, 
Dark guilt unwashed by repentent tears ; 

And unconfessed. 
Mine entered spotless on eternal years ; 

Oh ! how much the best ! 

*'But grief is selfish, I cannot see 
Always why I should so stricken be, 

More than the rest : 
But I know that, as well as them, for me, 

God did the best." 

So our precious Christian faith assures us that 
all our dreams and plans for our children gone 
home, shall be realized in the larger, fuller life, 
which Christ has imparted to them. Dying is 
not the end, simply a process of living, from 
which life emerges in new beauty and power. It 
would be a misfortune for a seed not to be buried 
in the ground. For only thus can it reach the 
beauty of the plant, with foliage, flowers and 
fruit. 

44 



Our Children Gone Home 

Dr. J. R. Miller tells this beautiful incident: 
^'I sat one evening with a father and mother 
beside the bedside of their little child, who 
seemed about to leave them. We talked of the ®^^ 
will and love of God, and before offering prayer I f^, ^ 
asked the parents, 'What shall we ask God to do?' 
There was a moment of silence, and then the 
father, with deep emotion, said: 'We would 
not dare decide. Leave it to Him.' Only 
God knows what will be best — to live in this 
world, enduring its wintry weather, or to be 
taken into the summer land of heaven, to grow 
up there, getting the crown without the conflict. 
We are not wise enough to decide what will be 
best; we would better leave it to our Father." 

There is a story of a Jewish home in which two 
boys, twins, died both on the same day. The 
father was absent from home, on business, at the 
time. Next day he returned, not knowing of the SI parable 
grief which was awaiting him. His wife met him 
at the door quietly and calmly, not betraying her 
sorrow. When he came in she said to him, "I 
have had a strange visitor since you went away.'' 

45 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

''Who was it?" asked the husband, with no 
thought of her meaning. 

"Five years ago," answered the mother, "a 
friend lent me two beautiful jewels. Yesterday- 
he came and asked me to give them back to him 
again. What should I do?" 

"Were the jewels his?" asked the father. 

"Yes, they were his, and were only lent to 
me," answered the mother. 

"Well, if they belong to him, he certainly has 
a right to reclaim them, if he wishes," replied 
the father, "and you cannot refuse." 

Leading the husband into the children's room, 
the mother drew down the sheet from their bed 
and there lay the forms, white and beautiful as 
marble. "These are my jewels," said the 
mother. "Five years ago God gave them to me, 
and yesterday He came and asked for them 
again. What shall we do?" 

The father bowed his head and said with deep 
emotion, "The will of God be done." 

This is the story of your sorrow., my friends. 
God gave you the beautiful jewel, which has 

46 



Our Children Gone Home 

become so priceless to your hearts. Yesterday 
He came and asked for it again. Be it yours to 
lay it back in His hands in sweet trust and joy, 
saying, ''The will of the Lord be done." 

^*I wonder, oh, I wonder, where the little faces go. 
That come and smile and stay awhile, and pass like 

flakes of snow — 
The dear, wee, baby faces that the world has never 

known, 
But mothers hide, so tender-eyed, deep in their hearts 

alone. 

"I love to think that somewhere, in the country we call 

heaven, STl^e 

The land most fair of everywhere, will unto them be {^i^^ ^f 
given. ^. 

A land of little faces— very little, very fair— 

And every one shall know her own, and cleave unto it ^^^^^ ^^* 
there. 

**0h, grant it, loving Father, to the broken hearts that 

plead ! 
Thy way is best — yet, oh, to rest in perfect faith indeed! 
To know that we shall find them, even them, the wee, 

white dead, 
At Thy right hand, in Thy bright land, by the living 

waters led!" 



47 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 



CHAPTER V 

^liall Wt Hecognije (J^ur i?rimW in t^t 
ifuture Mftl 

This question follows naturally from the dis- 
cussion of the foregoing topics. We have observed 
the intimate connection between the seen and 
unseen worlds. At every step we touch wires 
that vibrate in the future world. The composi- 
tion of our individuality symbolizes the two 
worlds. Our body represents the present world, 
composed as it is of earthly elements; our soul 
represents the spiritual world, to which it returns 
when God calls for it. 

Shall we know each other there? Reason and 
revelation both answer, Yes. Reason bases its 
answer on the following grounds : 

1. Death is only a physical experience. It 

Wi)^t touches the body; it cannot reach the soul. And 

reafion since the soul is the fountain of all our loving, 

^ hoping, recognizing here, it will continue so 

hereafter. You ask how we know that the soul 

48 



I 



Shall We Recognize Friends in the Future Life? 

has a conscious individuality apart from the body. 
There are many ways of knowing it. When a 
man undergoes a surgical operation, subject to 
the influence of an anaesthetic, his body is a 
corpse, for the time ; yet his soul still lives. The 
surgeon's blade cuts and divides his muscles, 
wrenches his nerves, removes a tumor, or with- 
draws a sequestrum of bone, or amputates a limb ; 
but the happy patient has not suffered in the 
least. He has been literally absent from the v 
body, so far as any feeling of pain is concerned. 

2. When death takes possession of the body, 
the soul goes on in its separate existence. If the 
soul lives, its faculties live. One of these facul- 
ties is memory. We shall remember our loved 2C&^ 
ones and therefore recognize them. Whatever ^ 
the form of the glorified body, its identity will 
not be destroyed, any more than our identity is 
effaced here by the molecular changes which our 
bodies undergo. The physiologists tell us that 
our bodies experience a complete transformation 
every seven years, in the sloughing off of all cor- 
poreal molecules which are replaced by new ones. 

49 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

A man of seventy years has had ten different 
bodies, but his soul has shone through them all. 
It is the soul, therefore, that weaves about itself 
the tissues of its own individuality. We shall 
never be lost or mixed up with the glorified 
throng. The disciples recognized Jesus in His 
glorified body. (1 Cor. 15:3.) Stephen recog- 
nized Jesus in glory standing at the right hand of 
God. (Acts 8.) All scriptural references to 
messengers that appeared to men from the other 
world indicate that they had the appearance of 
human beings. 

3. Another faculty of the soul's conscious indi- 
ILotie viduality is love. Love never dies. No amount 
of physical suffering, fatigue or disease ever 
weakens it. The infirmities of age, which some- 
times dim other faculties, seem to have no power 
over the affections; in fact, they grow stronger 
with the advance of decrepitude. It is evident 
that love is immortal ; therefore those who pass 
into the other world still love us, as you continue 
to love your dear ones after death has claimed 
them. Now then, love has its own instinctive 

50 



Shall We Recognize Friends in the Future Life? 

powers of recognition. And you might as well 
say that my mother did not recognize me in the 
great throng at the station when I used to come 
home on my vacations from college, as to say she 
will not recognize me when we meet in the 
heavenly land. 

*'They sin who tell us love can die; 
With life all other passions fly, 
All others are but vanity. 
Love's holy flame forever burneth, 
From heaven it came, to heaven returneth ; 
It soweth here in toil and care, 
But the harvest time of love is there. " 

— Southey. 

The Bible says God is love, a love which is 
from everlasting to everlasting. John says, 
"Love is of God; he that loveth is born of God," 
therefore Christian love must be as eternal as 
God's love, a love which binds hearts together by 
a heavenly bond. 

4. A next reasonable ground for believing in g[[j 
future recognition is the universal existence of peoplefi? 
this belief. It has been held by all nations from fi^l)are 
the earliest times. Who implanted it? It came '^^ ^^^^ 

51 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

not exclusively from the Bible, because it is 
found in people who have never seen the Bible. 
Therefore it must have been implanted by the 
Creator. When He made the human heart, He 
instilled this most precious instinct. You find 
it in the writings of the heathen sages like 
Socrates and Cicero. Socrates says, ''Who 
would not be willing to go to the future life in 
the hope of seeing there a father, a son, a wife, 
and holding converse with them?" Cicero says, 
"0 gladsome day when I shall go to mingle with 
the divine assemblage of departed spirits, and 
with my dear Cato, most faithful of men ! If I 
seem to bear his death with fortitude it was 
because I felt we could not long be separated." 

Among the Indians, where no light of revela- 
tion has gone, you find this same belief, the de- 
Cbe parted one being buried with all his familiar 
solace implements for use in the future life, and as 
of iijt insignia of future recognition. Among the early 
fiiatjaffe gaxons it was observed that a servant would slay 
himself to go and serve his master in another 
world. 

52 



Shall We Recognize Friends in the Future Life? 



I 



Under every sky, in every age, this precious 
theory of future recognition has been held. The 
Norwegian holds it, the Greenlander holds it, the 
Turk holds it, the Arab holds it. ' Is it reason- 
able to suppose that so widespread a belief could 
have been inspired by any one but God? And is 
it possible to think a good God would implant a 
hope so tender and fundamental if it was to be 
disappointed? If you have crossed the Atlantic 
you have anticipated the home-coming, and the 
greetings of your dear ones. So we look forward 
to the greetings of our loved ones who will meet 
us on the heavenly shore. 

*'As voyagers by fierce winds beat and broken 

Come into port beneath a calmer sky, 
So we, still bearing on our brows the token 

Of tempest past, draw to our haven nigh. 
A sweet air cometh from the shore immortal, 

Inviting homeward at the day's decline; 
Almost we see where from the open portal, 

Fair forms stand beckoning with their smiles divine." 

We come now to the second general ground g[;j)eliff|^t 
for our belief in future recognition, namely, the of 
Word of God. ^criptun 

53 






Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

1. The Old Testament and the New Testament 
imply the precious fact in many passages. David 
says, "In thy presence is fullness of joy, at thy 
right hand are pleasures f orevermore. " But 
what heavenly pleasure could be so great as 
reunion with those we have loved and lost awhile? 
The joys of friendship outlast death. In the 
second book of Samuel we have the narrative of 
David's grief over the illness of his darling boy; 
and when the boy finally dies, David rejoices in 
the fact that he will go to his boy at last. 
What satisfaction would David find in going to 
his boy if he would nob be able to recognize him? 
Would God have permitted David to record for 
all time such a declaration, inspiring hope in 
millions of hearts, if there was no reality back 
of it? 

2. The pictures of heaven which the Bible 
gives would be unintelligible if you elmininate 
the idea of heavenly recognition. Jesus says, 
"In my Father's house are many mansions; if it 
were not so, I would have told you." It would 
be a queer home where the different members of 

54 



Shall We Recognize Friends in the Future Life? 

the family could not recognize each other. The 
fact that the New Testament so often speaks of 
death as a going home implies reunion and recog- 
nition. Heaven is also described as a banquet 
(Matt. 8: 11), but what kind of a banquet would 
that be where there was no knowledge of our 
friends at table? ^'I say unto you that many 
shall come from the east and the west, and shall 
sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the 
kingdom of heaven." In other words, the 
patriarchs will be readily recognized; then why 
not be able to recognize those who were our 
friends on earth? "I shall be satisfied when I 
awake in thy likeness," exclaims the Psalmist. 
But heaven would not be a place of supreme 
satisfaction if we could not recognize those we 
long to meet again. 

3. But we know that love and friendship will 
outlast death, and therefore the powers of recog- 
nition will also. The Bible speaks of death some- ^eatf) 
times as a sleep. "He giveth his beloved sleep." ^^^P 
The apostle, speaking of David's death, says, ^ ^ ^^^ 
''He fell on sleep." But sleep, which is the 

55 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

counterfeit of death, refreshes the faculties. 
When you bid your family good-night and retire 
to sleep, you pass into an unconscious state; the 
bed is a temporary grave; but you emerge in the 
morning with all faculties refreshed, and you 
recognize your household again. So will it be 
when you awake from the sleep of death, only 
your faculties will be infinitely rejuvenated and 
every power of mind infinitely intensified. 
''Now we see through a glass darkly, but then 
face to face. Now we know in part; then shall 
we know even as also we are known." 

4. When Jesus emerged from the grave on 

that first Easter morning. He recognized at once 

the one who sought Him. He said, ''Go tell my 

disciples and Peter that I am risen from the 

^ « dead." Did not the little daughter of Jairus 

caged recognize her rejoicing parents when Jesus called 

in point her out of the sleep of death? Did not the son 

of the widow of Nain recognize his mother when 

Jesus stopped the funeral procession and bade 

death yield his grasp? Did not Lazarus recognize 

his weeping and wondering sisters when Jesus 

56 



Shall We Recognize Friends in the Future Life? 

commanded him to come forth from the grave 
where he had lain three days? And then, when 
Jesus was crucified and had been absent, He 
reappeared in His resurrection body, was He not 
recognized by His disciples? (1 Cor. 15: 3-8.) 

5. In the narrative of the transfiguration we 
see Moses and Elias appearing in conversation 
with Jesus. The two great prophets are ^imme- 
diately recognized by Peter, James and John, who 

were with Jesus. If these three disciples stand- ^Lnotlper 
ing on the earth could recognize those spirits who 
had been many years in heaven, will you and I 
not be able to recognize those who have gone 
away from us for only a few years? 

6. So we may rest assured that the transition 
from earth to heaven does not obliterate the 
faculties. Death is only a door; the grave only 

the dark vestibule of the King's palace. There ^ hnn\n 
is no break in the soul's consciousness. To (g ^0 
depart is to be with Christ. The apostle says, it linotun 
''Absent from the body, present with the Lord." 
If we shall see and know Him, shall we not also 

see and know them that are His? Abraham said 

57 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

to Dives, ''Son, remember." If the spirits of 
the lost world remember, why not the spirits of 
the redeemed? Certainly we shall not be more 
ignorant there than here. Thomas Chalmers 
was once asked by his wife: ''Dear, shall we 
know each other in heaven?" "My dear," he 
answered, "do you think we shall be bigger fools 
in heaven than on earth?" 

With what delight Paul speaks of his spiritual 
children in glory (1 Thess. 2: 19). In like man- 
ner the early Christians all held this doctrine of 
future recognition. Martin Luther in one of his 
table talks says, "We shall know father, mother, 
and each other on sight." 

"I want to see Isaiah, Elijah and the apostles," 
said that sturdy old divine, Nathan Evans, on his 
death-bed. So we all feel. We will want to 
interview the saintly characters of the Bible. 
Keunion Above all, we will want to tell our indebtedness 
to those who have befriended us, for we had been 
silent before they died. Or we will want to ask 
forgiveness for injuries we had foolishly wrought. 
Husband will want to tell wife, and wife hus- 

58 



I 



Shall We Recognize Friends in the Future Life? 

band, how little the one appreciated the other 

when living on earth; children will want to pour 

out heartfelt gratitude to parents whose love and 

self-sacrifice were too little valued, and never 

compensated in this life. 

*'0h, may I join the choir invisible 
Of those immortal dead who live again 
In lives made better by their presence." 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 



CHAPTEE VI 



^orrotp^ 31t0 speanmg ana spinifitr^ 



In every assemblage there are many hearts 
wounded by sorrow. Death has left deep gashes 
which all the flowers of springtime cannot band- 
age. Can you find a home where grief in some 
form has not entered? 

Almost every soul you meet is a sanctuary 
sacred to some tender memory. In every harp 
of rejoicing there is a string which responds in 
sad undertone to the mention of some dear 
name. What is the meaning of sorrow? God 
answers in the experience which the lonely 
Apostle John had on Patmos. John received 
visions of glory and heaven which he could have 
gained in no other way than by sorrow. The 
cruelty of the Koman emperor in banishing him 
resulted in the greatest blessing to John's soul. 
What he saw he has photographed for us in the 
last book of the Bible. 

1. In the first place it revealed to him that the 



Sorrow, Its Meaning and Ministry 

spirit land is near. It was within the range of 

vision. Our dear ones, therefore, do not go a 

great distance when they bid ns good-bye. 

Heaven is close by; so close that the prophet's $)^3i^^il 

servant, whose spiritual eyes God had opened, ^^^ ^^^ ^^ 

saw the celestial chariots and horses as a mighty 

host around him for defense ; so near that Gabriel 

touched Daniel and answered his prayer before 

the petition was ended; so near that Moses and 

Elias stepped from its golden pavement on to the 

Mount of Transfiguration ; so near that Stephen 

saw through the azure rent the glorified Jesus at 

the right hand of God; so near that I have, and 

many of you, stood by the bedside of a departing 

saint and noticed his eyes eagerly looking at some 

supernatural vision which we could not see, and 

his ears alert to catch waves of melody which we 

could not hear. 

Heaven is always near to the heavenly minded, its 
sights and sounds shut out only by the wall of flesh, 
and God now and then graciously permits glimpses 
of it from some Delectable Mountain of faith, 
some Pisgah height of joyful Christian experience. 

61 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

2. A second thing impressed upon John's mind 
§1 painlesfi ^^s that heaven is a painless land; the inhabitant 

lanti never says "I am sick," and they eat of the tree of 
life. Heaven is the land of the living. We 
sometimes speak of this world as the "land of 
the living." But in reality this is the land of 
the dying. 

3. A third thing John saw was a mighty com- 
31 crreat V^^J* The redeemed are not a small, select 

muItitttUe gathering of people, but a multitude that no man 
could number. Heaven is not a contracted place, 
but a city of twelve gates. No one can count the 
roads that lead to those ample gates. ''In my 
Father's house are many mansions." 

4. A fourth thing that John noticed was the 
color of the garments worn by the innumerable 
throng. They were arrayed in white robes. 
"These are they which came out of great tribula- 
tion," said the one to whom he spoke. Here is 

Whitt ^ splendid hint of the meaning of trouble. The 

rabeU white robe of a purified character is woven of the 

anil tDl)j7 threads of trouble. It takes seven colors, all 

there are in the prism, to make white. Perhaps, 

62 



Sorrow, Its Meaning and Ministry 

dear friend, you think you have had all the seven 
kinds of trouble. There are many who have. 
They have seen the savings of toilsome years 
swept away; or they have become helpless inva- 
lids ; or they have gone through the tribulation of 
failing health, or fading eyesight, or unstrung 
nerves, or some accident has crippled them; 
others have had business reverses, or decreased 
wages. They have had to give up former lux- 
uries, perhaps comforts. Others have had to 
endure domestic infelicities, or misunderstand- 
ings, or slanderous accusations. Others have had 
perpetual struggle in inherited appetites, and sin- 
ful passions, and they cry out, ^'0 wretched man 
that I am, who shall deliver me?" 

The faithful whom John saw were satisfied, for ^, ^ 

©ictorp 
they realized the meaning of their troubles. ^^^ -^p 

White is the color of victory, the flag of truce that complete 

ends the war. As some one has said: "The 

mountains that lift themselves highest above 

their fellows are crowned with the pure radiance 

of the snow. The torrent that leaps victorious 

over the rocky obstacle, breaks into dazzling 

63 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

masses of white foam. The plants that struggle 
hardest with adverse conditions throw out white 
blossoms to the breeze, just as the pond lily sig- 
nalizes its triumph over the mud by its white 
petals." 

5. Another thing, John observed that the re- 
deemed stood before the throne of God. "These 
are they which came out of great tribulation, and 
have washed their robes and made them white in 
the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are 
before the throne of God," the highest possible 
honor. Many of them were never great in the 
sight of men; they held no place of distinction, 
their names were never in print, but they were 
faithful to humble duties ; now they are before 
, the throne of God. How foolish the fierce strug- 

ft r trial ^^^^ some men make to achieve the applause of 
men ; for when time is merged into eternity, it 
will seem like writing one's name on the sand, or 
scratching it on a pillar of ice in the sunlight. 
The only place where our names will endure is in 
the Book of Life, God's register of character. 
Only character goes with us to the white throne. 

64 



Sorrow, Its Meaning and Ministry 

All other things that we accumulate, books, 
property, titles, are scraped off as we pass through 
the narrow door of the sepulcher. 

**Sunset and evening star, 
And one clear call for me, 
And may there be no moaning of the bar 
When I put out to sea. 

'Twilight and evening bell, 
And after that the dark, 
And may there be no sadness of farewell 
When I embark. 

*Tor though from out our bourne of time and place 
The flood may bear me far, 
I hope to see my Pilot face to face 
When I have crossed the bar." 

You have lost a dear one from your home 
during this year. It seemed as though you could 2[;jj0 xain- 
not say good-bye. How earnestly you prayed for ifiitrp of 
the recovery of the loved one! Were your fiovroto 
prayers heard? Yes ; but while you were asking, 
another stood at the throne praying, "Father, I 
will that they also whom thou hast given me be 
with me where I am, that they may behold my 

65 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

glory." Him the Father heareth always, and His 
prayers prevail. We claim our dear ones, but 
Jesus has claims too. We want them here, but 
He needs them there. We think of all we have 
planned for them ; but Jesus has far better plans 
for them. When the poet Whittier lost a dear 
friend, he comforted himself with Paul's words, 
"To die is gain," and he wrote: 

**And yet, dear heart, remembering thee, 
Am I not richer than of old? 
Safe in thine immortality, 
What change can reach the wealth I hold?" 

Yes, to those who die in Christ, death is gain; 
gain in knowledge, for they abide among the 
infinite intelligences of heaven; gain in power, 
for, released from the limitations of the flesh, 
they wait on God, renewing their strength ; gain 
in character, for they go from character to char- 
acter, growing in the likeness of Christ. 

You thought you could not spare that dear 
mother, she was so useful, so needful to your 
comfort ; but her work was finished and the best 

66 



Sorrow, Its Meaning and Ministry 

part of her life has now begun. It is grafted on 

the infinite, and will be fruitful as no earthly life 31 mother's; 

could be. Being dead, she yet speaks and lives, ^^^^h 

Your heart will cherish every word and wish she 

has ever spoken to you. There is an immortality 

this side the grave as well as the other — the 

immortality of character. The memory of the 

just is blessed. 

In some homes this past year the departure of 
loved ones has been very sudden. It came as a ci ^^ 
shock. But sudden death is a beautiful way to jj^atb 
depart. It is more to be desired than protracted 
invalidism and tedious suffering, making a bur- 
den to those who have to serve. 

Moreover, sudden death suggests to us who 
remain, how short the transition is. It brings 
the future near and throws an easy space across 
the interval. It robs the king of terrors of his 
awful mien. It tells us God is whispering His 
"Nunc Dimittis" to the soul. 

In a certain sense, every death is sudden. 
None of us has his work all done. But God's 
plans are completed. He appoints the bounds of 

67 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

life. Jesus died at thirty-three. How young for 
such a useful life to be shut off ! But the work 
He came to do was done, and He said, ''It is 
finished." This shows us that deeds, not days, 
are the measure of life ; motives, not moments, 
are the time-markers. 

Some of you have had to part with darling 
children. Call not the child in glory ''lost." 
Cl)^ Ueatj) Let your assurance be that of the Shunammite 
of cbilJiren ^ho said, "It is well with the child." That 
precious babe you gave to God is still your babe 
in glory. They that die cease to grow old. 
Death, instead of robbing us of our treasures, 
makes them more than ever ours in the dew of an 
immortal youth. Now there will always be a 
babe in your home. 

What a mellowing influence the death of a 

dear one has upon our spirits ! Nothing else has 

^eatb*^ such a power. The ministry of sorrow also 

mellotoinff brings our lives under the spell of the unseen 

totitl) world. You gave your babe, and you have had a 

new and keener interest in heaven ever since 

those dimpled hands pushed ajar the gates of life. 



Sorrow, Its Meaning and Ministry 

Before your darling left, your eyes were glued to 
the earth, your interests were all worldly. Your 
life is fuller, richer, now than ever. Poor indeed 
is the home where no heavenly influences per- 
vade, where no heavenly voices speak, and where 
the windows never open toward Jerusalem. The 
ties of earth are loosed that we may be bound 
with stronger cords to heaven. 

The beautiful lives of our departed ones are 
God's finger-posts pointing to the immortal life. 
They are God's lighthouses shining out over life's 
troubled sea. 

Another important ministry of sorrow is, it 
makes our departed ones more precious to us. 
We never fully understand or appreciate a person 
while he is with us. Death ripens acquaintance. 
This may seem self -contradictory. But why does 
a mother seem to cherish most the child that was 
taken, no matter how many remain? Why does 
the mother seem nearer and dearer to her chil- 
dren after death? Because her character is seen 
in a new light. While our dear ones are with us 
we see points not in proportion. As it is when 

69 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

you clamber up the sides of Mount Blanc, you are 
too near the monarch to appreciate his towering 
grandeur. But when you have departed several 
miles down the Vale of Chamounix, you discover 
the wonderful majesty of the king of mountains. 
So when our dear ones have gone we see the con- 
tour of character. We never realize the meaning 
of good-morning until we have said good-bye. 
The parting hand-shake brings hearts closer 
together. 

Another ministry of trouble is educational. 

Some sorrowful hearts labor under the mistake of 

|Jart of supposing that afHictions are the expression of 

^^^ God's anger, or God's judgment. Nay, nay; 

^ar I) p Jeg^g said to His own, "In the world ye shall 
eUttcation 

have tribulation." Every person before me is a 

separate biography of trouble. We learn to weep 
a moment or two after birth, and we never forget 
how from lack of practice. Both Testaments 
agree as to the prevalence of trouble and sorrow. 
*'Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly up- 
ward" (Job). *'The whole creation groaneth and 
travaileth together in pain until now" (Paul). 

70 



Sorrow, Its Meaning and Ministry 

Job's false friends told him his troubles came 
as punishment for sin. His wife told him to 
take refuge in suicide. An eloquent infidel has 
been giving the same advice. Many a poor, dis- 
couraged heart has followed it. 

But God's word plainly shows that the frater- 
nity of sorrow is world-wide. A cross is the 
household furniture of every family. God's pur- 3[ toorltr-' 
pose is the building of character. Moral muscle, toiHe 
like physical, must be toughened by discipline, ftratetrnitp 
Character that never bears a burden grows limp. 
The fibers of character are strengthened only in 
the gales of adversity. It is not the pampered 
youth, sheltered from all hardships, who grows 
up in beauty and symmetry of moral manhood. 
The masts selected for our ships are taken not 
from inland forests, protected from storms, but 
from the bleak coast of Maine, where they have 
done battle with fierce gales. The beautiful 
veins and markings of our finest furniture are 
wrought of the wood selected from trees exposed 
to wild elements. 

You cannot get music out of a violin with loose 

71 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

strings. They must be stretched, and if they 
could, would cry out with pain. If we lived in 
2ri)e obiect perpetual sunlight we would never see the stars 
of ItlJinff ^nd constellations which darkness reveals. Yet 
some anxious hearts, dwelling on their sorrow 
and not on the uses to which God puts it, have 
asked in despair: ''Is life worth living?" As 
well ask, "Is air worth breathing?" Life has a 
great purpose — our education for another life. 
This is the only reason why there seems to be 
more pain than pleasure in the world. As 
Henry Drummond says, "God knows, although 
we scarce do, there is something better than 
pleasure, — progress. Pleasure, mere pleasure, is 
animal. He gives that to the butterfly. But 
progress is the law of life to the immortal. True, 
there are earthly pleasures; our Father is too 
good not to give us some, but they are mere 
entertainments, as guests are amused at inns by 
the wayside." 

The example of Jesus also helps us out on this 
point. The apostle says that Jesus was made 
perfect through suffering. If God ordered it for 

72 



Sorrow, Its Meaning and Ministry 

Jesus, would He not order it for us? The apos- 
tle asks: ''Ought Christ not to have suffered and 
entered into his glory?" If Christ, who was 
holy, harmless and undefiled and separate from 
sinners, should be a man of sorrows, does it not 
make sorrow sacred? Is your sorrow great? It 
is because your nature is great. The highest 
mountains cast the longest shadows. This is a 
part of our joint heirship with Christ. ''If so be 
that we suffer with him, that we may be glorified 
also together. " (Eom. 8:17.) 

These conclusions ought to silence the sophis- 
try of those who affirm that sorrow or suffering is 
sent as punishment. All the guilt and punish- 
ment for sin was borne by our Mediator. If God 
has to keep on punishing us for our sins, then 
why did Christ die? God's purpose in sorrow is 
educational. St. Paul speaks of his own adverse 
conditions as means of grace to him. What is 
human character that has in it no patience, no 
submission, no trust? 

But those graces are possible only through sor- 
row. God also uses sorrow as a finger-post, 

73 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

pointing to a better life. This is not your rest. 
Sorrow, like fire, is a purifier. What a beauty 
STl^e fierp those light aflBictions work in the spiritual life 
furnace which has submitted to God with patience and 
trust! This suggests the truth that there are two 
ways to meet sorrow — the unsubmissive way like 
the starling which, when shut in a cage, beats 
against the bars of its prison till its breast is sore 
and bleeding. The other way is that of the 
canary which, finding it cannot get out of its 
cage, makes the best of it, lifts up its voice and 
sings. 

You can add tenfold to your troubles in life by 
a rebellious spirit, or you can harness troubles to 
your soul and make them God's horses to bear 
you nearer the divine likeness. Elijah is not the 
only one who has gone up to heaven in a chariot 
of fire. Thousands of God's people are this day 
riding in chariots of fire ; trouble is the fire, and 
sorrows the coursers by which they are being 
drawn nearer to the heaven of a Christlike 
character. 

Your experiences of sorrow God uses, also, in 

74 



Sorrow, Its Meaning and Ministry 

making you a comforter to others in their sorrow. 
You can lead them to the Comforter who has 
comforted you. You can explain the meaning CI)e 
and ministry of sorrow. As F. B. Meyer says: ficl)00l of 
'*You can point out how God is now walking ?^P^ ^P 
behind the plow of His providence, sowing the 
precious grain. For Sorrow shall not always be 
our portion ; God is sowing light for the right- 
eous, and gladness for the upright in heart. 
Look forward to the harvest as Jesus did, who for 
the joy set before Him despised the cross and the 
shame." 

By and by all mysteries will be made clear ; all 
disappointments revealed as His appointments. 
We shall be satisfied when we awake in His like- 
ness. We shall meet our loved ones again; we 
shall regain our love. All the events in life that 
we thought to have gone wrong will prove to 
have been blessings in disguise. 

Ever present is the sympathy of Jesus. Listen, 
then, to His loving voice as He bends down close 
to thee in thy sorrow and says, "Come unto me" 
(Matt. 11: 28-30). See His tender love shown to 

75 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 

Mary and Martha when, at the death of their 
brother Lazarus, Jesus weeps. 

See Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, sweat- 
ing great drops of blood. Luke 22 : 24. 

See Him with the crown of thorns on His brow. 
John 19:2-5. 

See Him spat upon. Mark 15:19. 

See Him mocked. Mark 15 : 20. 

See Him struck in the face. Luke 22 : 64. 

See Him carrying His cross. John 19: 17. 

See Him dying upon the cross. John 19: 30. 

Listen while Jesus speaks to thee: 



g)pmpat!)p 



** Child of my love, lean hard! 
And let me feel the pressure of thy care ; 
I know thy burden, for I fashioned it — 
Poised it in my hand, and made its weight 
Precisely that which I saw best for thee. 
And when I placed it on thy shrinking form, 
I said, 'I shall be near, and while thou leanest 
On me, this burden shall be mine, not thine. ' 
So shall I keep within my circling arms 
The child of my own love ; here lay it down. 
Nor fear to weary Him who made, upholds, 
And guides the universe. 
Yet closer come 
Thou are not near enough. Thy care, thyself, 

76 



Sorrow, Its Meaning and Ministry 

Lay both on me, that I may feel my child 

Reposing on my heart. 

Thou lovest me? 

I doubt it not; then loving me, lean hard." 

"And thou shalt find that in my love thou canst 
abide, and when I see the time is come for thee 
to leave this world, I'll take thee home to dwell 
with me in endless joy and peace." 



LofC. 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 



CHAPTER VII 

Comforting Jlims 

''I KNOW" 
Exodus 3:7 

I know thy sorrow, child ; I know it well, 
Thou need'st not try with broken voice to tell — 
Just let me lay thy head here on my breast, 
And find here sweetest comfort, perfect rest ! 
Thou need'st not bear the burden, child, thyself, 
I yearn to take it all upon myself ; 
Then trust it all to me to-day — to-morrow— 
^es, e'en forever, for I know thy sorrow. 

Long years I planned it all for thee. 
Prepared it that thou might 'st find need of me ; 
Without it, child, thou would 'st not come to find 
This place of comfort in this love of mine. 
Had'st thou no cross like this for me to bear, 
Thou would'st not feel the need of my strong care, 
But, in thy weakness thou didst come to me, 
And thus, through this my plan, I have won thee. 

I know thy sorrow and I love thee more, 
Because for such as thee I came and bore 
The wrong, the shame, the pain of Calvary, 
That I might comfort give to such as thee. 
So, resting here, my child, thy hand in mine, 
Thy sorrow, to my care, to-day resign, 
78 



Comforting Lines 



Dread not that some new care will come to-morrow- 
What does it matter? — I know all thy sorrow. 

And I will gladly take it all for thee, 
If only thou wilt trust it all to me ; 
Thou need'st not stir, but in my love lie still, 
And learn the sweetness of thy Father's will. 
That will has only planned for the best ; 
So, knowing this, lie still and sweetly rest — 
Trust me. The future shall not bring to thee 
But that will bring thee closer still to me. 

—F, a H. 



CHRISTUS CONSOLATOR 

Beside the dead I knelt for prayer, 

And felt a presence as I prayed. 
Lo ! it was Jesus standing there. 

He smiled: "Be not afraid!" 

**Lord, thou hast conquered death, we know, 

Restore again to life," I said, 
"This one who died an hour ago." 

He smiled: "She is not dead!" 

"Asleep then, as thyself didst say; 

Yet thou canst lift the lids that keep 
Her prisoned eyes from ours away!" 

He smiled: "She does not sleep!" 

"Nay, then, tho' haply she do wake, 
And look upon some fairer dawn, 

Restore her to our hearts that ache!" 
He smiled: "She is not gone!" 

79 



Concerning Them Which Are Asleep 



*'Alas! too well we know our loss. 

Nor hope again our joy to touch, 
Until the stream of death we cross." 

He smiled: * 'There is no such!" 

*'Yet our beloved seem so far, 

The while we yearn to feel them near, 
Albeit with Thee we trust they are/' 
He smiled: *'And I am here!" 

*'Dear Lord, how shall we know that they 
Still walk unseen with us and Thee, 

Nor sleep, nor wander far away?" 
He smiled: ** Abide in me." 

— E. W. Raymond. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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